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Petama Forum April 'The Sufi Form of Worship' from Hazrat Inayat Khan: 'Religious Gathekas' |
I would like to speak a few words to introduce the idea of our work. The Sufi work has three aspects:
In spite of all the different opinions of the various people in the world, it is an undeniable fact that humanity needs religion greatly. But which religion does it need? Does it need the sectarian religions of old? No. Mankind is getting tired of that idea of being confined in a fraction. The new generation today is beginning to see that there is no religion in this world which can be considered inferior to its own; therefore that narrow outlook of the sectarians of the religions does not appeal to them. Is the Sufi Message then a new religion? Certainly it cannot be a new religion. Jesus Christ said, ‘I have come to fulfill the law, not to give a new law.’ It is the same religion which Jesus Christ brought continued still further. It is one and the same stream which all prophets have brought and given to humanity, carried along. It is the same stream which is always there. The message of the Sufi work is the answer to the cry of humanity today, for it is in agreement with science and it stands to defend all religions. A Sufi does not say this religion is greater than the other, nor does he come out and say this religion and that religion are equal. He leaves it to the individual to think as he thinks. he only holds his service as the proof of admiring all the teachers and respecting all the scriptures which are respected by humanity. But with all its forms, the Sufi idea also has the formless ideal of worship. The form is to help the one who can be helped by seeing the form, because all education is an education of names and forms. If there were no form and no name we would not have learned them. The form is only suggestive of what is behind it, of the one and same truth which is behind all religions. Therefore this service is a teaching at the same time, yet every Sufi is free to take up a form or not to take up a form. A Sufi is not bound by a form; the form is for his use, not to make him captive. Is there a priesthood in our Sufi work? Priesthood, not in the sense as it is generally understood, priesthood only to conduct the service and to answer the need of a priest in our everyday life. Those ordained, whoever has the desire to serve humanity by showing an example to the world in all places: in the church, in school, in parliament, and in the court. Woman and man together complete evolution. But at the same time every Sufi is a priest, a preacher, a teacher, and a pupil of every soul that he meets in the world. The only ideal in working is to qualify ourselves to be a proper servant in order to serve the Cause of God. In the complete unfoldment of human nature lies the fulfillment of life's purpose.
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